COM 0959.029 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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August 1, 2006 Page 2 As you may be aware, the Council Section is currently not able to meet its statutory mandate of having Council minutes available within 30 days from the meeting. The reason for the delay is due to the increasing legal, statutory and deadline requirements of the law and publications coupled with more defined responsibilities of registering lobbyists, accepting lobbyists' expenditure reports, supporting the committee on the destruction of records, supporting the pension board, monitoring the submittal of financial disclosures, and processing claims. The Council is also required to conduct public hearings on the budget and real property tax rates. While the Committee Section is essentially up to date with their meeting minutes, the change in meeting location will impact their operations as well. It takes a minimum of three hours to transcribe one hour of discussion. Editing and proofreading are not included in this ratio. You should know that a taped meeting is reviewed at least two times in order to finalize the minutes. After transcription, the supervisor conducts a final edit and review of the minutes. Of utmost importance is the safety and health of our employees and their families. Our employees work at night and on the weekends. They take work home and to meetings. We must be careful that they do not `burn out' or transfer out of the Council Office. It goes without saying that their families also feel the effects of their overtime. We have also tried to make information more accessible to the public through the County's website and videoconferencing. Additionally, streaming video and the intranet are technologies used to keep the departments in communication with the council. These information technologies all take staff hours to maintain. It is also recommended that an information technologist position in the legislative branch be created to support our technological objectives and other computer issues, including the elections platform. This request should be made when fund balance is considered. For the above reasons, the creation of two clerical positions and funding will be requested to assist the Council and Committees implement the proposed change in Council rules. We will have to start now to create the positions, interview, hire and train. EQUIPMENT RESOURCES ($44,100) 1 vehicle to transport staff and/or equipment to/from meetings ($32,000)